Young people show no interest in politics. Up to 26 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds do not even follow domestic politics or read about it. Moreover, up to 41 percent of people in the same age category read articles on Slovak politics either in print or on the internet less than once a week. These results stem from a public opinion poll conducted by the MVK agency for the Institute of Strategic Analyses of the Slovak Academy of Sciences on a sample of 1,600 respondents in November. The survey, whose first results were presented at a press conference Thursday, is part of the Social Analysis of Slovakia project.
The survey has also shown the importance of social media in the lives of young people. In the age category 18-24 years, 65 percent of respondents claimed they spend more than one hour a day on the most popular social network, Facebook. Only 3.5 percent of young respondents claimed they did not use this network at all. According to Juraj Draxler, head of the Institute of Strategic Analyses, the results shows we live in a Facebook era.
"For us, this is a call for further research that will monitor the extent to which people are passive or active users of social networks and the internet as such," said Draxler, adding that it is important to know the impact of social networks on young people. According to him, it is a big challenge for psychologists, sociologists as well as anthropologists.
The survey further showed that people do not trust traditional media. Nearly 40 percent of respondents in all age category stated that they neither fully nor partially trust traditional media, moreover, around 45 percent of respondents said they sought out alternative media.
